[Bass of the Week] Kirbatron No.1

This week’s selection is from Zachary Adkins. He took the leap and built this bass after doing minor repairs and mods to his own basses for years. Here’s the story in his own words:

…After deciding to make one of my basses a fretless and having good success with that I started getting more interested in builders and luthiery in general. After watching the restrung documentary about Randall Wyn Fullmer I got seriously inspired. So I started thinking I want to try and build my first bass. Thanks to the youtubers and the wealth of information they share I was able to achieve a build that I’m proud of. I don’t have a shop, garage or even a basement. Just a very understanding woman and a living room lol! Everything was done with hand tools (praise the shinto rasp!!!), a tabletop drill press and tabletop band saw. It took me almost exactly 1 year. Squeezing in a couple hours after work (when possible) and whatever time I could get on my days off. I wasted a lot of time and wood trying things that I just couldn’t achieve with the tools and space that I have. A lot of the decisions made in the making of this guitar were a way of dealing with a mistake.

Anyway, the neck is a 5 piece maple and walnut neck thru design, with 2 carbon fiber rods and 1 truss rod. it has a wenge,maple,walnut top on the headstock and a walnut truss rod cover held with a magne. It has a single cut body design. The 3 piece body wings are made with a mahogany back a walnut center and a wenge top with a mystery veneer in between that I salvaged from a veneer manufacturer in the area.The bass side of the body is chambered in 2 seperate section. The larger section ports at the pick up cavities. The fret board is gabon ebony with maple binding. nickel frets since I like nickel strings as well. 35 inch scale length with hand made brass nut, a schaller 3d-5 bridge and some tuners from allparts. I actually put in some EMG 45TW 6 string pick ups because this was originally going to be a 6 string. Walnut frames around pickups to cover my poor routing abilities. Made my own knobs with of course maple, walnut ,wenge. Still haven’t made the control cavities yet but I’ve been playing this for a couple months now and surprisingly it plays and sounds better that any of the basses that I own.

So, what do you think for Zachary’s build? BTW – If you’re going to comment, whether it be positive or negative, please keep it constructive! We don’t approve of haters. [Comment below]

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